BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr.

Basil David Daniel

BASIC FREEWAY SEGMENTS

Basic freeway segments are outside the influence of ramps or

weaving areas of the freeway.

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

FREEWAY CAPACITY TERMINOLOGY

Freeway Capacity

The maximum sustained 15-min flow rate, expressed in passenger cars

per hour per lane, that can be accommodated by a uniform freeway
segment under prevailing traffic and roadway conditions in one
direction of flow.

Roadway Characteristics

The geometric characteristics of the freeway segment under study,

including the number and width of lanes, left-shoulder lateral
clearance, interchange spacing, vertical alignment, and lane
configurations.

Traffic Characteristics
Any characteristic of the traffic stream that may affect capacity,
free-flow speed, or operations, including the percentage composition of
the traffic stream by vehicle type and the familiarity of drivers with
the freeway.
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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

FREEWAY CAPACITY TERMINOLOGY

Free Flow Speed

The mean speed of passenger cars that can be accommodated under

low to moderate flow rates on a uniform freeway segment under
prevailing roadway and traffic conditions.

Base Conditions

An assumed set of geometric and traffic conditions used as a starting

point for computations of capacity and level of service (LOS)

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

BASE CONDITIONS FOR A BASIC FREEWAY SEGMENT

The base conditions under which the full capacity of a basic

freeway segment is achieved under good weather, good
visibility and no incidents or accidents. These conditions are:

1. Minimum lane widths of 3.6 m.

2. Minimum left-shoulder lateral clearance between the edge
of travel lane and the nearest obstacle of 1.8 m.
3. Minimum median lateral clearance of 0.6 m.
4. Traffic stream composed entirely of passenger cars.
5. Five or more lanes in one direction (urban areas only).
6. Interchange spacing at 3 km or greater.
7. Level terrain, with grades no greater than 2%.
8. Driver population composed principally of regular users.

The base conditions represent a high operating level, with an

FFS of 110 km/h or greater.

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

LEVEL OF SERVICE FOR BASIC FREEWAY SEGMENTS

A basic freeway segment can be characterised by three
performance measures:
1. Density (passenger cars/km/lane)
2. Speed (mean passenger car speed)
3. Volume-to-capacity (v/c) ratio

LOS thresholds for a basic freeway segment are:

LOS Density range

(pc/km/ln)
A 0–7
B > 7 –11
C > 11 –16
D > 16 – 22
E > 22 – 28
F > 28
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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

FREE FLOW SPEED (FFS)

FFS is the mean speed of passenger cars measured during low

to moderate flows (up to 1,300 pc/hr/ln).

There are two methods that can be used to determine the

FFS:
1. Field measurement.
2. Estimation.

The estimated FFS can be obtained using:

FFS = BFFS − fLW − fLC − fN − fID

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

where

FFS = free flow speed (km/h)

BFFS = base free flow speed, 110 km/h (urban) or 120 km/h
(rural)
fLW = adjustment for lane width (from Exhibit 23-4)
fLC = adjustment for left-shoulder lateral clearance (from
Exhibit 23-5)
fN = adjustment for number of lanes (from Exhibit 23-6)
fID = adjustment for interchange density (from Exhibit 23-7)

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

LEFT-SHOULDER LATERAL CLEARANCE

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

FLOW RATE (vp)

The hourly flow rate must reflect the influence of heavy

vehicles, the temporal variation of traffic flow over an hour,
and the characteristics of the driver population.

These effects are reflected by adjusting hourly volumes or

estimates, typically reported in vehicles per hour (veh/h) to
arrive at an equivalent passenger car flow rate in passenger
cars per hour (pcu/h).

The equivalent passenger car flow rate is given by:

V
vp =
PHF  N  fHV  fp

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

Where

vp = 15-min passenger car equivalent flow rate (pcu/h/ln)

V = hourly volume (veh/h)
PHF = peak hour factor
N = number of lanes (per direction)
fHV = heavy vehicle adjustment factor
fp = driver population factor

Peak Hour Factor

The peak hour factor (PHF) ranges from 0.80 to 0.95 for
basic freeway segments. Lower PHFs are characteristic of
rural freeways or off-peak conditions. Higher PHFs are typical
of urban and suburban peak hour conditions.

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

Field data should be used, if possible, to develop PHFs

representative of local conditions.

Heavy Vehicle Adjustments

The heavy vehicle adjustment factor is determined using:
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fHV =
1 + PT (ET − 1) + PR (ER − 1)
where
PT, PR = proportion (%) of trucks/buses (T) and recreational
vehicles (R) respectively
ET, ER = passenger car equivalents for trucks/buses (T) and
recreational vehicles (R) respectively (from Exhibits 23-8, 23-
9, 23-10, 23-11)

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

Driver population
The traffic stream characteristics that are the basis of this
methodology are representative of regular drivers in a
substantially commuter traffic stream or in a stream in which
most of the drivers are familiar with the facility.

It is generally accepted that traffic streams with different

characteristics use freeways less efficiently. Whereas data
are sparse and reported results vary substantially,
significantly lower capacities have been reported over
weekends.

The driver population factor (fp) is used to reflect this. Values

range from 0.85 to 1.00. In general, the analyst should select
1.00, which reflects commuter traffic, unless there is
sufficient evidence that a lower value should be applied.

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

DETERMINING THE LEVEL OF SERVICE (LOS)

Density is given by:

Where D = density (pc/km/ln), vp = flow rate (pc/h/ln) and S

= average passenger car speed (km/h).

The LOS of the basic freeway segment is then determined by

comparing the calculated density with the density ranges in
Exhibit 23-2.

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BFC 32302 Traffic Engineering and Safety Lecturer: Dr. Basil David Daniel

EXAMPLE

Determine the LOS of an existing four-lane rural freeway with

the following information:

▪ Two lanes per direction

▪ 3.3 m lane width
▪ 0.6 m lateral clearance
▪ Commuter traffic
▪ 2,000 veh/h peak hour volume per direction
▪ 5% trucks and buses
▪ 0.92 PHF
▪ 0.6 interchanges per kilometer
▪ Rolling terrain

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